Posting to Newsgroups and Netiquette

How Posting to a Newsgroup Works

Writing a newsgroup post feels a lot like writing an email. You choose the group, type a subject and your message, and press send. Your newsreader passes the post to your provider’s server, which shares it with other servers, so it can be read around the world, usually within minutes. Our overview explains how a post travels.

Posting at Fast Usenet

To prevent abuse, Fast Usenet switches posting on by request. Contact our support team and we’ll enable it for your account. Then send a first post to misc.test, a group made for testing, to check that everything works before you join a real conversation.

Before You Post

• Read the group first. The classic netiquette guidelines (RFC 1855, from 1995) suggest reading a group for a month or two before posting. Even a week or two of reading shows you what’s on topic and how people talk there.
• Read the FAQ and charter if the group has them. They answer the common questions and say what belongs there.
• Look through older posts. Your question may already have an answer. With 6,654 days of retention, Fast Usenet keeps about 18 years of past discussion.
• Pick the right group. Use the most specific group that fits; our guide to hierarchies explains how to choose.
• Check that posting is switched on for your account, and try a test post in misc.test.

How to Write a Good Newsgroup Post

• Write a clear subject line. “Tomato leaves turning yellow in July” gets far more helpful replies than a vague “Need help”.
• Use plain text. Many people read Usenet in text-only newsreaders, where formatting arrives as clutter.
• Write in mixed case. ALL CAPITALS reads as shouting.
• Get to the point. Keep paragraphs short. When you ask a question, say what you’re trying to do, what you’ve tried and what happened.
• Keep your signature short. If you add one, put it below a line containing just two dashes and a space (“-- ”), so newsreaders can recognize it and leave it out of replies. The classic guidelines suggest four lines at most.
• Keep files out of discussion groups. Text groups are for text.
• Credit your sources. Say where a quote comes from, and share a link or a short excerpt rather than copying a whole article.
• Advertise only where it’s welcome. Ads belong in groups made for buying and selling, whose names often include “marketplace” or “forsale”, such as rec.autos.marketplace. Anywhere else, an ad is spam.

Replying to Posts and Quoting

Most newsreaders give you two ways to answer: a follow-up, which posts your answer in the group for everyone to read, and a reply, which emails the author privately. Use a private reply for anything that isn’t of interest to the whole group.

Quote only what you’re answering

When you follow up, your newsreader copies the original text into your message with a “>” at the start of each line. Delete everything except the lines you’re responding to, and write your answer below them. On Usenet, replies traditionally go below the quote, or between quoted parts when you answer several points in turn. An answer above a full copy of the original is harder to follow.

> Has anyone grown tomatoes in pots?

Yes, every summer. Use at least a
5-gallon pot and water daily once
the fruit starts to form.

Keep the thread together

Keep the subject line when you follow up; your newsreader adds “Re:” to show it’s a reply. If the conversation drifts to a new topic, change the subject and mention the old one, for example “Watering schedules (was: Tomatoes in pots)”.

Cross-Posting and Multi-Posting

Sometimes a post really fits more than one group. Cross-posting sends one article to several groups at once, so readers who follow more than one of them see it once and the replies stay together. Multi-posting, sending separate copies to different groups, splits the conversation and looks like spam.

• Cross-post only to groups where the post is clearly on topic. Two or three is usually plenty.
• Set Followup-To to the one group where replies belong, so the discussion doesn’t scatter.
• Never send separate copies of the same message to different groups.

Spam, Flame Wars and Trolls

Spam

On Usenet, spam means unwanted posts: off-topic ads, scams and messages copied into group after group. Moderated groups keep most of it out, and your newsreader’s filters can hide the rest. The best response is no response. Don’t reply, even to complain, because a reply puts it in front of everyone again.

Flames and flame wars

A flame is a hostile, insulting reply, and a flame war is what happens when people keep trading them. Disagreeing is fine, and some groups thrive on lively debate, but argue about the ideas, not the person. If a thread turns nasty, step away.

Trolls

A troll posts to provoke rather than to discuss, with messages designed to start arguments. The long-standing Usenet advice still works best: don’t feed the trolls. Without replies, they lose interest.

Filters and killfiles

Most newsreaders let you hide posts from particular people, or with particular words in the subject. This is often called a killfile or scoring, and a few well-chosen filters can turn a noisy group into a pleasant one.

Protecting Your Privacy When You Post

• Your name and email address are public. They appear on every post and can be collected by spammers, so many people use a nickname and a separate email address just for Usenet.
• Never post personal details such as a home address or phone number, yours or anyone else’s.
• Posts last for years. Fast Usenet keeps articles for about 18 years, and some archives keep them even longer.
• Deleting isn’t reliable. Your newsreader can ask servers to cancel a post, but once it has spread there’s no guarantee every server will remove it. Read your post through before you send it.

Our guide to privacy explains what your internet provider and others can see when you use Usenet.

Frequently Asked Questions